o make,
Monsieur Scutamour? Your name is French, and you speak the language
well. We set the fair example in the treatment of brave men."

"Sire, I have been treated," the young officer replied, with a low bow,
and eyes full of gratitude, "as a gentleman amongst gentlemen. I might
say as a friend among kind friends."

"That is as it should be. It is my wish always. Few of your English
fabrications annoy me more than the falsehoods about that. It is most
ungenerous, when I do my best, to charge me with strangling brave
English captains. But Desportes fought well, before you took his vessel.
Is it not so? Speak exactly as you think. I like to hear the enemy's
account of every action."

"Captain Desportes, sire, fought like a hero, and so did all his crew.
It was only his mishap in sticking fast upon a sand-bank that enabled us
to overpower him."

"And now he has done the like to you. You speak with a brave man's
candour. You shall be at liberty to see the sea, monsieur; for a sailor
always pines for that. I will give full instructions to your friend
Desportes about you. But one more question before you go--is there much
anxiety in England?"

"Yes, sire, a great deal. But we hope not to allow your Majesty's
armament to enter and increase it."

"Ah, we shall see, we shall see how that will be. Now farewell, Captain.
Tell Desportes to come to me."

"Well, my dear friend, you have made a good impression," said the French
sailor, when he rejoined Scudamore, after a few words with the Master of
the State; "all you have to do is to give your word of honour to avoid
our lines, and keep away from the beach, and of course to have no
communication with your friends upon military subjects. I am allowed
to place you for the present at Beutin, a pleasant little hamlet on
the Canche, where lives an old relative of mine, a Monsieur Jalais, an
ancient widower, with a large house and one servant. I shall be afloat,
and shall see but little of you, which is the only sad part of the
business. You will have to report yourself to your landlord at eight
every morning and at eight o'clock at night, and only to leave the house
between those hours, and not to wander more than six miles from home.
How do these conditions approve themselves to you?"

"I call them very liberal, and very handsome," Scudamore answered, as
he well might do. "Two miles' range is all that we allow in England to
French officers upon parole. These generous terms a